Keeping it in-house

We’ve been doing iOS development in-house at 37signals for over a year! Since the launch of the Basecamp for iPhone app we’ve had a lot of questions about our development & design process going mobile, our opinions on the new environment, and more. Recently our team has participated in some interviews about how we made the app, and I think you’ll learn a lot from them.

Ryan was interviewed by Hipmob about the design process of the app, and the issues we’ve faced on mobile platforms:

The biggest challenge for a company like ours is to change our way of thinking because, we grew up when the web was just a laptop thing. We learned on laptops and we defined our notion of what software is on laptops and desktops, and it’s really changing.

I was lucky to be invited to the 4th monthly MotionMeetup, a moderated Q&A session with various RubyMotion developers. They asked questions about what I learned making the Basecamp app, what advice I’d give to newcomers to the platform, and why I hate bees:

Anonymous Coward

Interesting given that 37signals use to preach that they wouldn’t create an iOS app

Jason Green

on 15 Aug 13

I love the iOS app. It’s the main reason I returned to Basecamp after a year hiatus. I can’t wait for it to work on iOS 7. (It’s the first thing I check after every beta update.)

Nick

on 15 Aug 13

Jason, we’re working on it!

Chris

on 18 Aug 13

I know it’s not fair to ask yet, but I really want a working version for iOS 7! Do you have a beta tester program? I would gladly send you brief write-ups on what I am experiencing using the Basecamp app in iOS 7 (I’m on beta 6 right now and I’m a registered Apple developer).

Nic

on 21 Aug 13

Off-topic: Why are you serving comments on https? Firefox is warning me that the page has mixed content (http/https).